


morning star

by kaleidoscopestars



Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Angst? Sort of?, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, don't think about how this fic works w/ actual pacrim canon you'll just give yourself a headache
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-10 22:00:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15300945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaleidoscopestars/pseuds/kaleidoscopestars
Summary: there's no way that woojin and jihoon could ever be drift compatible(or woojin is an ex ranger, jihoon is an idealistic trainee and the fate of the world hangs in the balance)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i've been putting off writing this for months but the first chapter is finally done! it's kinda rushed so apologies for any errors. thank u to benji for helping me with ideas and putting up with me complaining about this fic! no prior knowledge of the pacrim universe is needed for this to make sense (hopefully)
> 
> kaiju - giant monsters that come from a breach in the floor of the pacific ocean  
> jaegers- giant robots created to fight the kaiju, each one is piloted by two rangers

Woojin is awoken by sirens. 

It’s nothing unusual- far from it. But for a split second it throws him into a sea of panic before dingy ceiling of his room swims into focus above his head and he remembers where he is. Across the room, Daehwi sits on his bed already fully dressed.

“I thought you were never going to wake up.” He says, throwing a shirt at Woojin and hitting him in the face. “The whole of South Korea would have been destroyed by an over-glorified sea lizard all because the great Park Woojin didn’t want his nap to be disturbed.”

Woojin pulls a shirt over his head and gets up, shoving his feet into his boots. “What time is it?” He asks trying to rub the last traces of sleep from his eyes.

“Time you bought a watch.”

“Brat.” Woojin pulls him into a headlock with a grin and Daehwi hits him on the back but there’s no real violence in it. 

 

Daehwi chatters aimlessly the whole way to the jaeger bay and Woojin tries his best not to fall asleep standing up. The glowing computer terminals they pass on the way tell him that it’s just before 4am. Why can’t kaiju have some respect for Woojin’s sleep schedule?

Even at this time, the shatterdome is far from quiet. People rush past him heading in a myriad of directions, carrying stacks of paper, or tablets or mugs of coffee. Some look as sleep deprived as Woojin, but most look as if they’ve been up and working since long before the sensors detected movement in the breach. Of course, Daehwi has no problem being awake at this time, he’s practically bouncing on the balls of his feet, eyes sparkling as he explains the latest project Seongri’s working on in the kaiju labs. He doesn’t care that most of it goes straight over Woojin’s head. Never has and never will. 

He continues talking as they put their suits on, at one point he almost hits Woojin’s helmet out of his hands when he waves his arms a bit too animatedly, getting too caught up in his explanation, but Woojin doesn’t mind. It’s comforting and makes what they’re about to do seem easy and mundane. A walk in the park. Nothing to worry about.

“Forty thousand won says that it has a tail, something with spikes on it,” Daehwi says. The lift underneath them creaks slightly as it rises towards the conn-pod. From up here the figures on the ground are almost unrecognisable. Woojin can just about make out Sungwoon yelling at some poor engineer who hadn’t done something exactly right. 

“Another forty thousand says that it has four eyes.” Woojin should’ve learned by now not to bet against Daehwi. He either has a weird sixth sense or more luck than everyone else in the world put together and he’s never lost one of these bets, no matter how ridiculous. 

Daehwi narrows his eyes in thought for a second. “Okay, but you only win if it has exactly four eyes. Any more or any less and I get the money.”

Woojin sighs “Fine.” He gets a grin in response and can already feel his wallet get considerably lighter. “Come on, kid,” he says, slinging his arm around Daehwi’s shoulders “Let’s go save the world again.”

“Nothing we haven’t done a thousand times before.” Woojin can hear the smile in Daehwi’s voice. 

Twelve times. They’ve done this twelve times before. Four times more than any other rangers both dead and alive. This is their thirteenth drop fighting a kaiju, twenty-second if you count the times they’ve run backup for the jaegers at the Tokyo shatterdome and patrols along the coasts. Woojin keeps a mental tally burned into his brain and he’s sure that Daehwi does as well. They’re the youngest rangers in the Jaeger program and they’ve been in the game as long as anyone else still piloting. The world’s golden boys. A symbol of hope. Woojin wears the title around his neck like a noose, always waiting for it to choke him. He hates how the civilian population sees his job as glamorous, hates how they spin the stories of how the jaegers take down kaiju into tales of glory filled with patriotism and a sick sense of pride. In reality, it’s dirty and tiring and Woojin’s body aches right down to the bones after he steps out of the Jaeger and the fear never leaves his veins even when there are weeks between kaiju attacks. He still remembers when Euiwoong and Hyungseob’s Jaeger, Silver Hurricane, had gone down in a mangled mess of crushed metal and electrical fire. They’d never recovered the bodies.

No matter how much he wants to quit the program and run away to farm sheep in Iceland, or maybe goats on the side of the Himalayas, he stays anyway because Daehwi’s staying and he’d travel to the end of the world and beyond to keep Daehwi safe.

 _“Preparing for the drop.”_ Sungwoon’s voice breaks him out of his trance, and moments later they’re free falling as the conn-pod hurtles down and joins with the rest of the Jaeger with a jolt that still doesn’t fail to knock the breath out of Woojin. Daehwi gives him a thumbs up and Woojin returns it shakily.

 _“Drop complete.”_ Sungwoon’s voice is back. “How are you guys doing in there?”

“I’d be better if the kaiju had decided to attack at 4 in the afternoon.” Woojin doesn’t have to see Daehwi’s face to know that he’s rolling his eyes.

 _“I know how you feel,”_ That’s a lie, Woojin is pretty sure that Sungwoon never sleeps, he practically lives at his command desk. “If you’re ready, I’ll initiate the neural handshake.”

It’s more of a warning than a question and he doesn’t get the chance to reply before he feels the bridge between his and Daehwi’s minds opening and then he’s being swamped with memories.

They flow over him like a river but he catches glimpses here and there. His mother’s face, the swing at the bottom of his garden, the empty halls of his school. Some of the memories must be Daehwi’s because he sees his own younger face in them, and rooms and places he’s never been to. The memories flow faster, turning into a torrent that whizzes past him so fast it’s dizzying and then as suddenly as it started he’s thrown out and back into the Jaeger.

“Left hemisphere, calibrating.” Daehwi raises his arm and Woojin does the same without having to think, their minds moving as one.

“Right hemisphere calibrating.” 

_"Neural handshake strong and holding"_ Sungwoon confirms over the radio.

“Let’s go kick some sea lizard ass.”

The sky above them stirs. Dark and angry and threatening to split open at any moment. It doesn’t faze Woojin, he has more important things on his mind. For starters the 2,700 tonne kaiju still circling the breach.

 _“It’s a category III”_ Sungwoon informs them as the Jaeger fights its way forwards through the waves. _“One of the biggest we’ve ever seen.”_ Woojin can feel the panic rising like bile in his throat and he swallows it down, determined not to let Daehwi notice. Kind of stupid considering their minds are linked right now, so of course Daehwi notices, but he’s nice enough to not bring it up.

 _“We’re calling Echo Ace back from Osaka to help you bring it down, their ETA is 20 minutes and until then you’re the only thing stopping it from making land.”_ Sungwoon pauses for a second, no doubt to read something off the hologram in front of him. _“Don’t engage under any circumstances unless absolutely necessary. Look after yourselves out there, if you go down there’s nothing between that kaiju and a city of seven million. Godspeed.”_

“Roger that” Woojin reaches up to flick the radio off “Looks like we’re playing a waiting game.”

Daehwi hums in agreement. “Can you make it out on the radar yet? I want to know if I won the bet, I said I’d buy pizza for Jinyoung and I tonight but I don’t know if I have enough cash.”

Woojin squints at the display on the visor of his helmet, but the kaiju is still just a blurry blob. At this point, he isn’t even sure if it has legs “Nope, sorry.”

“Pity, all this waiting would be less painful if I didn’t have to worry about my bank account as well.”

“Shut up, you always win and you know it.” Woojin can feel a smile creeping onto his face and eroding away the overwhelming fear. He would never have been able to do this without Daehwi, out of the pair of them he’s the brains, the one who always knows exactly what to do and stays perfectly calm in even the worst situations, all Woojin really is is another brain to share the neural burden of piloting the Jaeger. Not that he minds, it’s not really like he uses his brain for anything else in the first place.

“Hey, don’t say that. I couldn’t do this without you either.” Daehwi’s voice is quiet, but still crystal clear over the radio.

“How did you know what I was thinking?”

Daehwi snorts “Our brains are connected now, remember? I know everything you know and vice versa. I also know how dumb you are, that’s just from knowing you for my entire life though.” Oh yeah, that. All this time and Woojin still forgets how deep the bridge between them runs when they’re in the Jaeger.

 _“I hate to break up what I’m sure is a touching conversation, but the Kaiju has broken its circuit, it’s heading towards you now._ ” Sungwoon sounds worried, but that’s nothing new. He’s always worried even when Woojin and Daehwi have two feet on dry ground and there isn’t a kaiju in sight.

Woojin swears under his breath, on the radar the Kaiju is growing clearer and clearer, four legs, horns sprouting from a narrow, elongated head and _fucking damn it_ a tail covered in barbs, not unlike how the stem of a rose is covered in thorns. Only, in this case, the thing on the other end is nowhere near as beautiful as a rose “You win.” He says.

“Course I did,” Daehwi whistles “That is one ugly sea monster and it’s fast to boot.”

“Sungwoon, what should we do?”

_“Echo Ace is almost at your location, but until then you’ll have to hold it off by yourself. You can do whatever you have to, just don’t let it reach land.”_

“We can do that easy, we’ll go down in history as the first rangers to take down a category III alone.” Woojin is false bravado personified. Fake it till you make it and all that, only it’s been years and it’s still not working and he's still scared shitless all the time “Tell Echo Ace that when they get here I’m kicking their asses for being late to the party.”

Above them, the heavens open.

The kaiju meets them head-on, a torpedo of scales and muscles and armored skin. It crashes into their left side and sends the jaeger staggering backwards. Metal screeches in protest and the well oiled joints groan. The conn pod jerks to one side as its tail whips against it with a crack louder than a bomb exploding and Woojin can feel the shockwave reverberate through his core

“Are you okay?” Woojin asks, tearing his eyes away from the display in front of him to glance at Daehwi. Hull integrity is still holding. For now.

“Fine.” Daehwi replies, his expression steely “Charging plasma cannon.” He flexes his left hand and Woojin instinctively does the same. Working in tandem had been strange at first, but by now it’s second nature.

The kaiju wheels around to charge towards them again and they fire, the blast hits it square in the chest with a blinding burst of blue fire, but it doesn’t even flinch. Instead, it roars, loud and terrible and the lights from the jaeger reflect off a mouth bristling with fangs, each one bigger than a small tree and sharp enough to slice through the metal body of the jaeger like a hot knife through butter.

“I think we just made it angrier,” Woojin says helpfully “We’re going to have to do this old school.” He clenches his fist and turns it ninety degrees before punching forward and a blade slides out from the underside of each of the jaeger’s arms. The Jaegers don’t respond to a series of buttons and levers like most machinery, instead, it’s actions and thoughts that control them.

“And what makes you think this will work any better?” Daehwi asks.

“It’s our only other option unless you feel like firing missiles less than a mile from the shore.”

“You have a point.” 

Ahead of them, the kaiju rears up on its back legs before falling back down into the water, creating a veritable tsunami that swallows the jaeger whole. Woojin barely has time to brace himself before it hits and then, before they have a chance to recover and regain their bearings, the kaiju’s tail wraps around conn-pod and squeezes. Cracks spread in a fine spider's web across the glass at the front of the pod and around them the titanium walls begin to buckle. Woojin does what he does best in situations like this. He freezes. 

He feels his left leg move upward, mirroring Daewhwi, and connect with the underside of the kaiju, hears the kaiju roar again and then sees it retreat. “Woojin, snap out of it,” Daehwi says. Of course, it was him that saved them, it always is. He’s the one who keeps his head on his shoulders when Woojin panics.

“I’m okay.” He says, trying to convince himself as much as Daehwi.

This time when the kaiju attacks they move as well. Agility is limited when you’re in a giant robot weighing several thousand tonnes and said robot is up to its waist in seawater, but they manage to sidestep the kaiju and bring both blades up and plunge them into its side. Sparks fly from the strain and several red lights flash as the strain threatens to break the jaeger apart at the hinges, but Daehwi and Woojin ignore it all and focus on pushing the blades as far into the kaiju as they can. It screams out in agony and thrashes from side to side. One of its front legs tears a chunk out of the breastplate of the Jaeger, narrowly missing the engine, but still, they hold their position. Eventually, the kaiju stops moving and the dot on the radar fades out to nothing. 

Silence fills the pod. Steam hisses out of vents and the waves beat against them. It’s almost eerie how quickly calm settles again. Woojin just stands there blinking slowly, trying to process what happened. That was too easy, it’s _never_ that easy. And yet…

“We did it!” Daehwi’s laughter fills the conn-pod, part disbelief, and part pure joy. It’s bright and clear like the chime of a bell and for the second time since they set foot in the Jaeger, Woojin finds himself smiling.

“Guys are you okay out there?” Sungwoon’s voice is more static than anything else “We lost your signal.”

“Yeah, we’re fine. We took the kaiju down, but I think that it must’ve destroyed one of the relays, it got us in a headlock and we took quite a beating.” Woojin says, he looks over the damage on the display in front of him and winces. It’s going to be hell to get the jaeger back in working order before the next attack and nigh on impossible if they get asked to run a patrol at any point before then. Maybe Echo Ace will stay permanently at their shatterdome until they’re back in working order. That’d be nice, it’s fun having Seongwoo and Daniel around. 

“Thank god, you had me worried for a moment there.” 

“We’re heading back now, try not to miss us too much in the meantime.”

“I’ll see you back in the jaeger bay. Over and out.”

 

In the end, they never saw it coming, they were too proud of what they’d just accomplished, too caught up in their own happiness to notice the red dot reappear on the radar.

They didn’t notice until the kaiju sunk its teeth into the left side of the Jaeger and tore it away, arm and all. And by then it was too late. 

Everything happens in a split second. In the beat of a butterfly’s wings. Blink and you miss it. But Woojin doesn’t blink and he sees it all and what happens replays in his mind every time he closes his eyes for years to come.

Daehwi turns to him, a look of pure panic etched on his face and the storm waves crashing together in a spray of white and grey behind him. It’s easy to forget how young Daehwi really is, but now he’s a terrified child playing dress up in someone else’s suit. He opens his mouth to say something, maybe to tell Woojin to fight back, maybe something else. Woojin will never know because before the words have a chance to leave his lips a claw sprouts through his chest. Woojin can feel it happen as if he’s the one who just got impaled. He can feel his ribs crack and splinter into hundreds of tiny pieces, muscle and sinew tearing, arteries severing. It feels like his entire body is on fire and the pain is so intense that dark spots dance in front of his eyes and he almost blacks out. 

Worst of all, whatever barriers that Daehwi normally keeps up in his mind to separate his emotions from Woojin’s come crumbling down and Daehwi’s fear hits him like a tonne of bricks. Ice crawls down his spine and his stomach turns to fire, he can’t think, can’t breathe. The world around him is muted and all he can hear is the ringing in his ears. He can feel rain hitting his face from where it flies in through the jagged gash in the side of the Jaeger. Outside the storm still rages.

Daehwi coughs, blood spilling from his mouth, ruby red against his deathly pallid skin and in that moment Woojin realises that this is the sort of injury you don’t survive. Even if he was to somehow get Daehwi back to this infirmary right now this second there would be nothing Jonghyun and Minki could do to save him. Most of his chest has been shattered and torn apart at the seams. It’s a miracle he hadn’t died instantly, but this isn’t the sort of miracle you pray for, it’s the one in a million chance that you try your hardest to avoid.

He reaches one hand out towards Woojin, silently imploring him to do _something_ and then before Woojin can even begin to process what’s happening, Daehwi is ripped from the conn pod.

 

Woojin feels pain lance through his body like lightning and Daehwi’s fear reaches a crescendo and then nothing. He's fallen into a black void, the part of his brain that usually links to Daehwi when they’re in the Jaeger has gone dark like someone has flicked a switch. It’s numb and empty, like being submerged in ice water for too long. 

He’s only vaguely aware of what happens next. Later, Sungwoon will tell him that they lost contact completely in the hour between their last contact and Woojin turning up half dead in a Jaeger that was little more than a mangled tin can, but when he looks back it’s a hazy blur and more like it’s someone else’s memory that was planted into his head than something that happened to him. 

Somehow he manages to bring the right arm of the Jaeger up and bring it down on the kaiju's head again and again and again like a metronome until the red dot on the radar fades out for good. Somehow he manages to put one foot in front of the other and drag the jager through the sea and back to shore. The neural load is too much to bear alone, he knows this from countless warnings and mission briefings, and yet he has no choice unless he wants to die here in the middle of the ocean alone. His brain is being squeezed in a vice that’s slowly tightening and blood drips from his nose and into his mouth making him cough and splutter. Every step is harder than the last, his entire body is coated in lead and his feet are sluggish, every muscle taking too long to respond. The jaeger stumbles onto the beach and Woojin blacks out.

 

 

____________________________

 

“I think you know why I called you here.” Jisung folds his hands on the desk in front of him and fixes Woojin in his stare. The medals on his uniform catch the light, gold and silver and bronze. He looks exhausted, the bags underneath his eyes are purple-blue like a fresh bruise. They’re all tired these days

“No,” Woojin says, refusing to meet Jisung’s eyes and kicking his feet against the floor petulantly. 

“It’s been years, Woojin, you need to find a new ranger to pilot with.” Woojin can hear the frustration in Jisung’s voice. It isn’t the first time they’ve had this conversation and it won’t be the last.

“I said _no_.” He didn’t mean to raise his voice. It’s not like he hasn’t tried to find a new partner before, he’s tried to drift with too many people to count in the simulators, but every time they try to form the neural handshake it’s like there’s a mile high concrete barrier around Woojin’s mind that effectively shuts out everyone. Either that or he panics before they can even begin. The simulator pods are too small and claustrophobia makes him kick his way out of them.

“Woojin, you’re one of our best rangers, we need you out there,” Jisung sighs “I know you’re still grieving, but you need to at least try to move on.” 

“I’m not one of your best rangers. It was all Daehwi.” Woojin laughs bitterly “I was just there, he was the hero. And there is no ‘moving on’ I was still connected to him when he died, I _felt him_ die and I couldn’t do anything to save him.” He gets up, kicking his chair to one side. The bang makes Jisung flinch and Woojin regrets it instantly, but he doesn’t let it show.

“Trust me, I know how difficult it is to lose a friend and I didn’t want to force you into this, but the governors have given me an ultimatum. Either you find a new copilot or you have to leave the program. They’ve decided that you’re a waste of time and resources.”

Woojin feels like the wind has been knocked out of him “But you’re in charge of this shatterdome, can’t you stop them?” This is beyond ridiculous. The governors sit in their fancy silver and chrome offices, miles inland and as far away from any danger as possible. Never getting their hands dirty or creasing their hideously expensive suits. They have no idea what goes on down here on the ground, or what it’s really like on the front lines. And yet they try to dictate everything that happens as if they know best.

Jisung’s face is uncharacteristically somber “I’ve done all I can to keep you in the program for this long already. We have some of the new trainees coming in this week, you have until the end of the month to find one you can drift with or you have to pack your bags.” He gives Woojin a sad smile, maybe in an effort to comfort him. Woojin isn’t sure “I’m sorry, I really am.”

Woojin storms out and lets the door slam shut behind him.

He doesn’t know where he’s running. He just lets his legs carry on autopilot as he sprints through the corridors past room after room until he’s doubled over, chest heaving and sweat coating his face in a thin sheen. 

There’s no way he can find someone in such a small amount of time. He might as well pack up his few belongings and leave now. Save himself from the inevitable pain of the next few weeks. Hell, he isn’t even sure what’s kept him around for so long. This was never his dream. He only stuck around to protect Daehwi and in the end, he couldn’t even do that right. But it’s been so long since he first set foot through the front door of the shatterdome that he feels like it owns part of him now. He belongs here and he isn’t sure what he’d be if he left.

“Dude, are you okay?” Woojin hadn’t even realised that there was someone else in the corridor. He looks up and Jaehwan stares back at him, leaning on his mop the bucket sitting forgotten a few metres away.

“No,” Woojin says mournfully “They’re making me find a new partner. Can you believe it!”

“Haven’t they tried to do that before?” Jaehwan asks, sweeping the mop across the floor. All it does is smear the dirt in a muddy arc and make it worse.

“Yeah, but before it wasn’t serious, now I’ve been given a deadline and everything.” He whines, leaning back against the wall and slowly sliding to the floor.

Jaehwan watches him, one eyebrow raised “If you ask me it’s about time.”

“What the fuck!” Woojin splutters “You’re meant to be my friend!”

 

“No,” Jaehwan says slowly like he’s talking to a small child or someone very, very old “I’m meant to be the janitor. You just like to follow me around and mope about how much your life sucks. Get it together, kid.”

“You’re not even a good janitor,” Woojin mumbles under his breath.

Jaehwan whistles and jabs Woojin with his mop “Low blow. Now get up and stop feeling sorry for yourself, I need to clean that bit of floor.” 

Woojin pulls himself up off the floor and moves to stand behind Jaehwan, as out of the way as possible “Do you really think that I need to get my life together?”

“Look,” Jaehwan pulls a cloth out of his pocket and starts scrubbing at a mark on the wall before glancing back at Woojin “Do you want my honest opinion?”

“You’re going to tell me no matter what I say, aren’t you?”

“Spot on! Anyway, as the janitor, I say stop moping in the corridors because you always manage to get mud and engine oil everywhere and as your sort of friend, I say get your act together and at least try.”

“Wow.” Woojin stands there in silence for a second “That was absolutely no help at all, thank you.”

“I try my best,” Jaehwan says, pulling a spray bottle from his trolley “If I actually gave decent advice I might have people ask me what to do all the time and that’d be a disaster.” He sprays the mark on the wall with whatever was in the bottle. It smells like bleach and sadness. The sadness part is probably just Woojin projecting.

“For real though,” Jaehwan puts the bottle and the bucket back on the trolley “I’d hate to see you go, I can’t imagine this place without you.” He picks up his mop and heads off down the corridor. Woojin doesn’t bother to follow him.

__________________________

 

“This place is amazing.” Jihoon tilts his head back, above him a glass dome lets sunlight filter in. Through it, he can see clouds skidding across the grey sky and the sea wind swirls them in impossible patterns. It’s dizzying to watch. Metal rods cut through the glass in a criss-cross pattern to strengthen it and they cut the sky behind it into sections like a mosaic.

“Eyes down here, newbie.” His guide- Jinyoung, at least that’s what Jihoon thinks his name is- says. Everything between his transport shuttle arriving and now has been a mad rush. He’s the only trainee coming in from Seoul. The rest are arriving tomorrow from Busan and Incheon. “We still have a tour to finish.” And with that, he sets off down the corridor with surprising speed. Jihoon has to sprint to catch up with him. He leads Jihoon past crowds of people and through a side door hidden away behind a pillar. 

“Welcome to the Jaeger bay.”

It’s enough to take Jihoon’s breath away. Along the far wall, jaegers are lined up, each one hundreds of metres tall and wider than a semi-truck. Around them, engineers rush like ants over an anthill, carrying out repairs and maintenance in a sea of sparks and the roar of heavy machinery. Each Jaeger has a skeleton of scaffolding around it, allowing engineers to reach all the way to the top, but compared to the bulk of the jaegers it looks like it’s built out of toothpicks and string. Seeing the jaegers here, real and tangible, instead of just as pictures on a hologram is enough to convince Jihoon that the last two years of arduous and painful training have been worth it.

“How the hell do you get them out of here? There’s no way you have a door big enough.”

Jinyoung nods his head at the wall furthest from them “You see that wall? It slides all the way back, means that we can get as many jaegers out as possible as we want.”

“How many do you have here?”

“Currently we have four permanently based here and a few that move between shatterdomes here in South Korea and in Japan and China. One of ours is currently in San Francisco on transfer.”

On the opposite side of the hanger, Jihoon can make out Echo Ace, her gold paintwork shining out like a beacon, proud and majestic. Even her design is regal. Sleek and elegant despite being years old. The most famous Jaeger still deploying from the shatterdome since that accident a few years ago.

He knows, but he asks anyway “Is that-”

“Echo Ace? Yeah. She’s beautiful isn’t she.” Jinyoung looks almost wistful and there are stars in his eyes. But that could just be the reflection of the Jaeger. Jihoon nods in agreement.

“Sorry, I never asked when I got here, are you a trainee ranger as well?” 

“Not anymore,” Jinyoung shrugs “I used to be, it was my dream y’know? But when I was training here I saw- I saw things. And I realised that wasn’t what I wanted. I work in engineering now. I still get to work with the Jaegers and there’s less of a threat of imminent death. It’s a win-win situation.”

“Oh,” Jihoon isn’t sure what to say “What made you change your mind?” Way to go Park Jihoon. That wasn’t at all tactless! Gold star for being an insensitive idiot.

“I’d rather not say.” It’s amazing how quickly Jinyoung’s face shuts down “Come on, I’d love to stay here all day, but we have a tour to finish before I can get back to doing my job.”

They walk back down the corridor they were in before, pointing out the Kwoon room as they pass. Jihoon pokes his head in and sees a girl flip a man almost twice her size over her head as if he was made of tissue paper. The man lands on his back with a solid thunk and Jihoon winces in sympathy. He isn’t looking forward to getting his ass handed to him, but sadly that’s a fundamental part of ranger training. 

“That’s Siyeon.” Jihoon didn’t realise that Jinyoung had stopped right behind him and his voice makes him jump “She’s young, but she’s the master of the Kwoon Room. I’ve never seen anyone defeat her in a duel. Not even the most experienced rangers.”

They also pass the canteen with its seemingly endless rows of empty chairs and empty tables, the gym, and the infirmary. Jinyoung barely pauses for any of them just points them out and keeps on walking. Eventually, they reach the end of the corridor and Jinyoung kicks it open with a bang.

“Welcome to the nerd zone!”

 

A man looks up from his computer and sighs, pushing his glasses up his nose with one finger “Jinyoung, please stop copying Seongwoo, it’s bad enough that he calls the labs that, I really don’t need anyone else picking it up.”

“Hey, Minhyun! Nice to see you too!” Jinyoung waves at him and the man- Minhyun- gives him a tired look “What’s up?”

“This kaiju DNA sequence is doing my head in, and I can’t figure out why.” Minhyun gestures to his computer screen and the stream of letters and numbers on it. Just looking at it is giving Jihoon a splitting migraine “Something’s wrong with it, but I can’t figure out what. It’s like it’s denaturing more and more every time we analyse it, but there isn’t any reason how or why.”

“Cool. I'm sure that's fascinating,” Jinyoung says “Hey Minki, Hey Jonghyun.”

The two men sitting in the corner next to the coffee pot get up and walk towards them. They’re both wearing white coats and the taller one has a stethoscope around his neck. 

“This stuff tastes like tar and I’m pretty sure it’s rotting several of my major organs.” He says, squinting into his paper cup warily as if something in it is about to jump out and bite him.

“You always say that and yet you keep drinking it anyway,” His friend replies and then turns to face Jihoon “Hi, I’m Jonghyun.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Jihoon.”

“And I’m Minki, if you hadn’t managed to work that out,” Minki balances his cup precariously on top of a computer “So, what are you in for?”

 

Jonghyun hisses “ _Minki!_ ” and punches him gently in the arm.

“I’m a trainee ranger,” Jihoon says.

“We’re this shatterdome’s doctors.” Jonghyun smiles at Jihoon. He has a trustworthy face and Jihoon likes him already. 

“Speaking of,” Jinyoung cuts in “Why aren’t you in the infirmary? Like you’re meant to be?”

“None of you fuckers are sick, so we have nothing to do,” Minki says “We’ll go back as soon as we’re needed, but it’s boring in there.” His eyes light up “Hey Jinyoung, mind getting electrocuted again so that I can do my job?”

“No way.” Jinyoung glares at Minki “How did you even get into med school?”

“Blackmail,” Minki says with a grin. Somehow Jihoon doesn’t doubt him.

“Do you know where the rest of the scientists are?”

“The rest of the kaiju science guys are at lunch and there’s also a meeting about blueprints for the new Jaeger so I guess that that's where the rest of them are.” Minhyun doesn’t bother looking up when he answers.

“I guess I’ll have to introduce you to the rest of them later.” Jinyoung says to Jihoon “Let’s get going.” 

Jihoon waves goodbye to Minhyun, Minki, and Jonghyun and then they’re off again.

“I’ll show you where the bunks are and then I’ll leave you to have a few hours alone before dinner,” Jinyoung says as they dodge through the sea of people who all seem to be trying to go in the opposite direction “Your training starts tomorrow morning.” The further away they get from the jaeger bay, the fewer people there are rushing past them.

Jihoon is so focused on reading the signs on every door they pass that he doesn't see the other boy until he runs into him. Literally. They collide with a crash and Jihoon gets thrown backward and would’ve landed on his butt if Jinyoung hadn’t caught him.

“What the fuck?” He spits out “Are you blind or something?”

The other boy looks furious. That’s the first thing that Jihoon notices. The second is the silver scar that wraps itself from the bottom of his left ear and down his neck to the base of his collarbone “Watch where you’re fucking going.” He snarls, shoving past Jihoon.

“Who the hell was that?” He asks Jinyoung when the boy is out of sight and hopefully out of earshot. 

“You mean you don’t know?” Jinyoung frowns “Never mind him, he’s always like that. If you’re lucky you’ll never have to talk to him.” Jihoon notices how his fists are clenched and his entire stance is tense. There’s something about that boy that Jinyoung isn’t telling him and Jihoon is determined to find out what it is.

The next few weeks should be interesting.


	2. lost & found

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was written in a rush and barely proof read so sorry in advance for any typos or errors!
> 
> if you haven't watched pacrim before LOCCENT is the command centre in the shatterdome! it get mentioned a few times in this chapter

Jihoon’s room is small. Matchbook small. So small that if he stands in the middle and stretches both his arms out he can easily touch the walls on either side of him. Not enough room to swing a cat or even a hamster for that matter. It’s practically bare as well, only a metal framed bed with an uncomfortably thin looking mattress, a small wardrobe, and a rickety desk and chair shoved into a corner like an afterthought. On the far wall, there’s a tiny porthole shaped window, the glass is grimy and frosted by age.

There’s no human touch to it, it’s all forgotten furniture hauled off a garbage dump fused with military efficiency. Everything in there is there to serve a purpose and there are no extras, the definition of bare minimum. The grey walls feel like they’re sucking all the warmth from the air and the whole place smells of bleach. It reminds him of a hospital ward minus the patients.

But Jihoon loves it.

After who knows how many years of sharing cramped dorm rooms with who knows how many other boys, having his own space is a godsend. Even if he can barely call it _space_.

“Welcome to your new life of luxury,” Jinyoung says with a wry grin as if he can read his mind.

“How come I don’t have to share with anyone?” Jihoon asks. He’d been expecting dorm rooms, rows of beds packed into one room with no space for personal belongings or any of that fancy nonsense. Like he’d had back in basic training in Alaska and the next stage back in Seoul. Like he’d had every day and every year since he’d turned eighteen and signed his life over to the Jaeger program.

Jinyoung shrugs “You’ll have to ask whoever the hell built this place. They obviously thought there’d be a lot more personal than there actually are, so the big bunk rooms ended up becoming redundant and we refurbished them into extra labs.” He turns to leave “I’ll see you in an hour at the canteen. You remember the way back, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I think I do.” Jihoon doesn’t, not even in the slightest. This place is a rabbit warren and none of the signs on the walls are of any use. He’s pretty sure that whoever designed them had never actually used them to navigate themselves anywhere. But, he doesn’t want to look like a complete idiot, so he figures he’ll just try his best to find it and ask someone if everything goes pear-shaped.

“Cool!” Jinyoung gives him a quick wave and turns and jogs away down the corridor. His footsteps fade away like a rainstorm dissipating and Jihoon is left alone. He shrugs his backpack off his shoulder and lets it fall onto the bed with a soft thud. Everything he owns is in that bag, it’s easier to travel light. 

He crosses the room to the window and peers through it. Outside, waves beat a tattoo against the seawall surrounding the Shatterdome. The steady rhythm of a heartbeat. If he closes his eyes he can almost imagine that the sea was alive. Clouds cover the sun and block out the sky in an endless slate expanse, everything around here seems to be perpetually grey. It might take some getting used to. 

The silence gets to him as well. The bunks are far enough away from the engineering bays that the clank of machinery and hum of electricity has faded into nothingness and instead has been replaced by the sort of odd emptiness you get when a building is too big for the number of people who live there. Like a stately home left abandoned until weeds grow up the walls and the sound of a pin dropping echoes through every chamber. It’s odd being able to hear himself think and he’s certain that the novelty of every single one of his thoughts bouncing off the walls and straight back at him is going to wear off all too soon.

He uses his time to unpack the few things he has. Clothes get flung haphazardly into the drawers of the wardrobe, a couple of textbooks that cost more than his life is worth go on top of the desk. Carefully, he pulls a photograph out from between the pages of the larger one, it had been the only way he could think of to transport it without it getting torn, and gently traces his fingers over it. His fingers barely brush against it, it’s already faded and worn thin, crumpled and worn thin from both time and touch. The edges have started to fray and go soft in the way that paper does when it’s folded and unfolded a few too many times. Gently, he places it on the desk, but it looks out of place without a frame so he folds it in half and slides it into the left breast pocket of his jacket, just above his heart.

 

 

“And then,” Minki says, jabbing at the air with his fork “The bastard has the nerve to turn to me and say ‘Maybe if you did a better job of fixing it last time it wouldn’t have broken again.’ I’m a doctor, not a fucking mechanic. I told him, no strenuous activity for a month after he got the cast off his arm. But did he listen? No! Of course, he didn’t! Because he thinks he’s invincible.” Jonghyun gently pulls his arm down before he stabs someone in the eye.

Said bastard grins at Minki from across the table, his arm in a sling “It’ll heal, Doc,”

Minki glares at him with enough anger to stop a small army in its tracks or burn a hole through metal “It better, or else.”

Jihoon watches the scene unfold in front of him, shoveling questionable canteen spaghetti into his mouth and completely at a loss for words. He had arrived ten minutes after Jinyoung had told him to meet him, face bright red and chest heaving from sprinting the whole way there and taking several unplanned detours on the way. Pride had prevented him from asking for directions like any sensible person would’ve. He’d grabbed a bowl of the first edible looking food he could find and Jinyoung had waved him over to a spare seat at his table. Some of the people sitting there Jihoon already knew and some he definitely didn’t. And now here he was, sitting in the middle of an argument with no clue what was going on whilst Jinyoung sat sniggering next to him and Minki looked about two seconds from leaping across the table and committing first-degree murder.

“I’m Seongwoo by the way, Ong Seongwoo.” Sling guy says, reaching his hand out towards Jihoon in the offer of a handshake. Only it’s the arm that’s in the sling and he ends up knocking over a glass of water. The guy sitting next to him rolls his eyes and shoves a handful of napkins onto the spill. It looks like this isn’t exactly a one time event.

“I know,” Jihoon blurts out “I mean, I’ve seen you on the news. You’re one of Echo Ace’s rangers.”

“Always nice to meet a fan.” Seongwoo gives Jihoon a cheesy grin and Minki snorts derisively 

“‘Fan’ my ass, everyone knows who you are whether they want to or not.” Seongwoo chooses to ignore him

“So, why are you really here? Other than to meet me, of course.”

“I’m one of the trainee rangers.” Jihoon carefully separates all the mushrooms out from his spaghetti as he talks, they taste like slime and not much else. It isn’t very appetizing.

“Fresh meat!” Seongwoo cheers, Jihoon really isn’t sure what to make of it. It’s mildly ominous and not in a good way. Seongwoo is too loud, too happy for someone with an arm in a sling and dark circles under his eyes that are deeper than the grand canyon. It grates on Jihoon’s nerves slightly.

“Seongwoo, please,” Up until that point, Jihoon hadn’t noticed Minhyun sitting at the end of the table, his glasses sitting lopsided on his nose and his tray pushed to one side and replaced by a laptop. Something important and official looking is visible on the screen but there’s too much scientific jargon and too many numbers for any of it to make sense to Jihoon. He could’ve been looking at an extremely complicated pancake recipe and been none the wiser.

“He speaks!” Seongwoo crows, he’s too jubilant over Minhyun finally contributing to the conversation to care about what he actually said. Minhyun sighs a long suffering sigh of someone regretting their choices in friends, or acquaintances, or whatever it is that Minhyun and Seongwoo are. Jihoon isn’t sure. The way this exchange is going they could easily be mortal enemies who just happened to stumble onto opposite ends of the same uncomfortable metal cafeteria table.

“Can’t you go annoy Daniel or something. Please, I’m begging you,” Minhyun glances up and down the rows of faces “Wait a minute, where is Daniel?”

Seongwoo shrugs, shoving spoonfuls of ice cream into his mouth “Sleeping or something, I don’t know. Contrary to popular belief we’re not joined at the hip.” 

“He’ll turn up eventually,” Jinyoung says “He always does when there’s food involved.”

For as long as Jihoon lives and works in the Shatterdome, he doesn’t think that he’ll ever get used to the alarm.

To call it an ‘alarm’ would be putting it lightly, like calling a hurricane a ‘small storm’. Whilst it is technically an alarm, the word seems too small. Something more aggressive such as ‘klaxon’ or ‘Yellowstone volcano finally erupting, only bass boosted and complete with strobe lights’ seems more appropriate.

It doesn’t help that the second the alarm starts blaring in the canteen, every conversation ends abruptly and total silence descends. Jihoon on the other hand is so shocked that he yelps, jumps about a foot off his chair and promptly stabs himself in the hand with his fork. Smooth.

The sirens are piercing and Jihoon can feel each blast crawl through his spine and make every hair on his body stand on end. Around him, everything freezes as if the world is holding its breath, and then before he can blink, everyone springs into action. 

Seongwoo groans and lets his head drop forward “I did _not_ want to have to do this tonight. Or any night, for that matter. I’ll see you guys later.” He gives them a tired smile as he gets up and then he’s swallowed by the crowd of people heading out of the double doors.

Jihoon is fairly certain he knows what’s going on. There are very few things that alarms like that in a Shatterdome can mean. The list comes down to three things and two of those involve either an impending nuclear apocalypse or some poor fool accidentally leaning on the button. Maybe a combination of both. But still, it’d be nice if someone actually told him. The extra element of uncertainty is making him antsy and-

“Kaiju in the breach,” Jinyoung says. He gets up and Jihoon follows “I have to get to the Jaeger bays, but Minki is heading up to LOCCENT, you can tag along with him. Just try not to get in anyone’s way.”

If Jihoon had thought that the corridors had been busy before, he was now being forced to reevaluate. It seemed that every member of staff, both civilian and military, in the Shatterdome had crammed themselves into the same short stretch of corridor and were all heading in the opposite direction. Moving was like trying to swim upstream in a river during rainy season with both your arms tied to your sides and your legs paralysed. Which is to say, fucking impossible. Minki however, seems to be a pro. He ducks and weaves past people as easily as if they weren’t there, leaving Jihoon in the dust “Keep up, kid.” He calls back over his shoulder and Jihoon has to fight the urge to throw one of his shoes at his head. Eventually, they make it to a set of metal stairs which Minki takes two at a time. Jihoon chooses to take a more conservative approach and just walk. That is what stairs were built for, after all, walking and not leaping.

The door at the top has more security on it than a bank vault. Then again, someone breaking into a vault doesn’t have the potential to result in an international disaster. Probably.

“You’re a trainee ranger, so your data will get added to this system eventually.” Minki explains as he scans his thumbprint and then punches in a code “But until then you’re going to need someone else to let you in.” The door clicks open.

LOCCENT, as it turns out is just another way of saying ‘organised chaos’. Computer desks run around the edges of the room, each screen showing a different diagram, map, or wildly important statistic. The technicians sitting at them are typing so fast that their hands are practically a blur, barking out orders into their headsets. In the middle of the room is a giant 3D hologram, showing in great detail the breach and the kaiju circling it. Numbers and labels spin in a nebulous mass of red, green and blue. The Shatterdome is a pulsing red light to the far right of the breach and the kaiju is looking remarkably slug like, details slowly coming into focus as it heads towards shore.

A man with firetruck red hair is in center stage, his desk set apart from the others. There’s a whole dashboard of dials and blinking lights sitting in front of him and he looks strangely calm as he reads something off a print out before crumpling it into a ball and throwing it into a bin. Unlike everyone else, he doesn’t have a computer, but instead another hologram.

“That’s Sungwoon,” Minki says as they make their way across the room “He runs the show in here.” He wastes no time in marching up to Sungwoon and pulling the headset away from one of his ears “I don’t want Seongwoo doing this, he’s still injured.” 

Sungwoo sighs “I like it about as much as you do, but we have no choice. Obsidian and Solar are undergoing major repairs and Paladin’s rangers are at the Osaka Shatterdome for a training exchange program. Echo is the only Jaeger we have that’s able to deploy, so short of waiting for someone from the Busan Shatterdome, we don’t have any choice.” He never takes his eyes away from the hologram in front of him as he talks “And don’t even think about to going to Marshall Yoon over this, you know he’ll tell you the exact same thing.”

“Fine, but I don’t like it. I have a bad feeling about this.”

 

“You always have a bad feeling about everything. It’s called being a pessimist.” The voice comes from behind them and Minki freezes, his shoulders stiffening and panic briefly flashing through his eyes.

“Marshall,” Minki turns around slowly, a fake grin stretched across his face like a pantomime clown “Fancy seeing you here.”

The Marshall chooses to ignore him and instead turns back to Sungwoon. Jihoon watches him, he has kind eyes, but he looks as if he was carved out of granite. His face is hard and unmoving, there’s no emotion in him only cold efficiency. Either he was born of stone or the war made him this way. Jihoon is willing to bet good money on the latter.

“Marshall Yoon on deck,” Sungwoon announces, a second too late before sliding his headphones back on and the conversation is officially over.

“ _Echo Alpha ready for drop._ ” Jihoon doesn’t recognise the voice coming over the comms, this must be Daniel. Minki nudges his elbow and nods his head towards the large windows set at the far end of LOCCENT. Out of them, Jihoon can see Echo Ace, burnished gold paintwork shining like a star against the muted grey around it. 

“Engaging drop now,” Sungwoon says, he flicks a switch and Jihoon watches, mouth hanging open in something close to awe, as the conn-podd plummets down so fast that it’s almost a blur and connects with the jaeger’s shoulders. 

“There must be a better way to do that.” Jihoon didn’t mean to say it out loud, but it slips out of his mouth before he remembers to close it.

“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Minki moves to stand next to him “At least that seems to be the J-Techs’ life motto and also the only reply you’ll get if you try to bring it up to them.” 

“Coupling confirmed.” On the hologram, in front of Sungwoon the Jaeger's head has turned green as every connection and clicks into place. The whole thing is now surrounded in a weird green glow, sort of like ectoplasm from a low rate sci-fi movie 

“Engage pilot to pilot protocol.” Marshall Yoon orders.

“Engaging now.” Sungwoon flicks a couple of switches and a bar appears on the display, slowly creeping up towards 100%. It reminds Jihoon of a loading bar like the one you get when you try to transfer files, which in a way it sort of is. Echo Ace’s core powers up with a low roar

“Echo Ace ready and aligned,” Sungwoon pushes his desk chair sideways and whizzes to the other end of his dashboard “Neural handshake initiating in 3, 2, 1.”

“ _Left hemisphere calibrating._ Seonwoo sounds too cheerful for someone about to face death head-on in a giant robot.

“ _Right Hemisphere calibrating._ ” Daniel reports not even a second later “ _We’re ready to rock and roll! _”__

__“Please never say that again,” Sungwoon grimaces slightly “Neural handshake strong and holding. Over to you, Marshall.”_ _

__“ _Jisung! What’s up?”__ _

__“That’s Marshall Yoon to you, Ranger Kang.” The Marshall sounds severe, but there’s a hint of a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth._ _

__Jihoon turns to Minki, his confusion must be written across his face clearer than a well articulated email because he doesn’t even have to say anything for Minki to explain “Jisung used to be a ranger before he became Marshall. He was, _is_ , good friends with all the senior rangers here.”_ _

__“That must be breaking some sort of rule?”_ _

__Minki shrugs “Not my area of concern. As long as people around here are in good health, they can do whatever the hell they want and it’s none of my business.”_ _

__“Echo Ace, the Kaiju is close enough to us that you won’t need a drop off, you’re deploying straight from the jaeger bay. Your orders are to hold the miracle mile. Do not let this kaiju make landfall or there’ll be hell to pay and more paperwork than you’ll ever manage to complete in your natural lives. Blue Zero is on standby at Busan if need be. Do you copy?”_ _

__“ _Copy. You may as well tell Blue Zero to pack away and get a good night’s sleep. We’ve got this one locked down._ ” Seongwoo announces. Jisung doesn’t look like he’s going to take his words to heart._ _

__The bay doors swing open. Outside a storm is starting to build, it doesn’t seem like this place has any other weather settings apart from ‘grey and miserable’ or ‘potential hurricane’ and it swings wildly between the two at a moment's notice. The platform that Echo Ace is standing on slowly wheels forwards, Jihoon can make out J-Techs with neon batons slowly guiding the ground crew as they send her on her way. Slowly, the Jaeger is lowered into the sea and the bay doors close abruptly before the resulting tidal wave can flood inside._ _

__“Kaiju codename Talon, it’s a category III, but it’s a big one, approximately 3,000 tonnes and I’m guessing whichever genius named it did so after the, guess what, talons. Jesus, you guys need to get more creative with this stuff or I’m going to have to start doing it myself.” Sungwoon reads off the statistics in front of him with a practiced ease. To Jihoon it might as well be in greek._ _

__Echo reaches the Kaiju in a matter of minutes. It’s making a beeline for the shore, slicing through the water faster than should be possible for a creature of that size and mass and Echo Ace meets it in a shower of spray and a wall of solid metal. The kaiju rears up onto its back legs and brings its talons lancing down straight towards the conn-podd. Hydraulic joints groaning in protest, Echo feints to the right and discharges its plasma cannon right between the kaiju’s eyes. Nothing. The blast reverberates off a solid shield of bone and Talon roars so loud that Jihoon swears he can hear it from outside as well as over the speakers and dives back beneath the ocean. They may not have injured it, but they’ve sure as hell made it angry._ _

__“ _Typical,_ ” Daniel’s voice is slightly crackly with static. No doubt interference from the storm “ _What’s the point in having this thing if it’s never of any use?_ ”_ _

__“ _It has lots of uses,_ ” Seongwoo replies “ _Just last week Yaebin discharged it into a wall when she was trying to fit an upgrade and melted a hole the size of a small truck. So now we can get trucks in through the wall of jaeger bay one five meters up in the air if we want to.”__ _

__“Guys, focus. Please.” Sungwoon begs “That thing is still circling you.”_ _

__Not even a split second after Sungwoon finishes speaking, the kaiju strikes. Still underwater, it wraps its tail around Echo’s right leg and pulls, hard. Thankfully, it isn’t enough to fully unbalance Echo Ace, but the Jaeger stumbles, off balance for a moment and that’s enough for Talon to attack. It emerges only half out of the water and sinks its talons into Echo’s back and brings them downwards, cutting through metal plating like a knife through butter and leaving Echo’s virtual nervous system exposed. On Sungwoon’s hologram red warning lights blink into existence in a cluster, warning that hull integrity is compromised and critical systems have been damaged. But it isn’t enough to cripple the jager, not by a long shot. Echo Ace was built to be resilient and it’ll take a whole lot more than that to eventually take it down, but even then it’s only Seongwoo and Daniel’s quick thinking that saves them. With only seconds to spare before they become an unfortunate titanium shish kebab, they unsheath the blade on the Jaeger’s left arm and bring it up into the soft flesh beneath the Kaiju’s front legs. The angle is too awkward to cause any real damage, but it’s enough to get the Kaiju to withdraw._ _

__“ _Looks like we’re doing this old school._ ” Seongwoo jokes as they unsheath the blade on the Jaeger’s other arm._ _

__They spin and lunge forward before the Kaiju gets a chance to sink below the waves and out of reach once again. This time aiming for the eyes. They get lucky, and the blade sinks in deep on the left side; lodging itself firmly in at least a meter of bone and muscle. The kaiju shrieks, high pitched and horrible, like fingernails scraping down a blackboard and twists, opening its mouth wide as it does. Seongwoo and Daniel get a brief glance of a double row of serrated incisors and then the Kaiju tears itself free with a horrible squelching noise and dives forward, sinking them and into the Jaeger’s shoulder._ _

__“ _This Kaiju is one tough bastard._ ” Daniel shouts._ _

__Echo Ace brings a fist up and slams it into Talon’s skull one, two, three times. Bone shatters with a sickening crunch and the kaiju’s jaw loosens enough for Echo to twists its arm until it slips free. The Jaeger brings both fists together on each side of the kaiju’s obnoxiously ugly face with as much force as possible. Talon thrashes from side to side until Echo lets go out of fear of being impaled on one of Talon’s wildly flailing legs and the kaiju sinks once again beneath the waves._ _

__“Guys, Talon is about 300m from your starboard side,” Sungwoon reports. The kaiju’s life sign is perfectly still on the holographic map in front of them. Just sitting there. Waiting. For what, Jihoon has no idea and he feels as if his heart has crawled out of his chest and into his throat._ _

__“ _Roger that._ ” Daniel replies “ _Charging plasma cannon_ ”_ _

__“ _Don’t worry, we have a plan._ ” Seongwoo chimes in._ _

__Next to Jihoon, Minki snorts “Somehow that doesn’t reassure me at all.”_ _

__Talon looms out of the water, advancing on Echo Ace slowly. It’s obvious that it's seriously injured, it’s movements are slow and sluggish. Only one eye remains, wide and bloodshot and it’s fixed Echo Ace in its glare. The jaeger stays completely still, plasma cannon glowing a brilliant, electric blue. If this was a movie, dramatic string music would be playing right now, violins and cellos and all of that jazz._ _

__One second the kaiju is coasting along, head barely above the surface of the water, the next it’s practically flying towards Echo Ace, mouth stretched wide open in a silent roar. The soundtrack reaches a discordant climax. Jihoon hears Daniel shout something over the comms, but he isn’t sure what and he doesn’t have enough time to find out before Echo discharges its plasma cannon straight into the kaiju’s open mouth. The cranium explodes in a disgusting firework of blue and grey and Talon goes down in a heap. Jihoon watches as the kaiju’s life sign slowly fades from the hologram._ _

__“ _So I have some good news and some bad news,_ ” Seongwoo says as Echo Ace turns away from the dead Kaiju and they begin to make their way back to the Shatterdome “ _The good news is that we kicked some serious ass. The bad news is that the J-Techs are probably going to be cleaning kaiju brains off this thing for the next month._ ”_ _

__LOCCENT erupts into cheers. Everyone laughing and clapping, a feeling of relief filling the room. The apocalypse has been postponed. For now. Sungwoon whoops and punches the air with one hand, spinning in his chair as he does. Technicians high five each other and start to close down their displays. Jihoon is smiling so wide that he feels like his cheeks might split open and Minki looks ecstatic._ _

__“If Seongwoo’s arm is any worse, it’s not going to be the kaiju that finally kill him it’s going to be me,” Minki says, his grin doesn’t reach his eyes. Okay, maybe he isn’t ecstatic._ _

__At the side of the room, Jihoon catches sight of the boy from earlier, the one with the scar. His hands are shoved deep in the pockets of his slightly grimy overalls and his shoulders are hunched over as if he’s trying to make himself as small and unnoticeable as possible. Unlike everyone else, he doesn’t look happy. In fact, he looks miserable. Although, it could be that pissed off is his default mode. As Jihoon watches he quietly slips from the room, letting the door click shut behind him. No one else notices him leave._ _

__

__

__

__The second Jaeger bay is completely empty. Normally home to Paladin Secret, it’s now home to several dust balls, a stray pigeon and, for this afternoon only, Woojin moping on one of the empty maintenance platforms about a meter up and Jaehwan trying unsuccessfully to clean the floor._ _

__“Hi, Jaehwan,” Woojin says miserably after a few minutes of silence “How’s life?”_ _

__

__Jaehwan stops trying to scrub oil off the cement floor and glares at him “I’m almost 30 and I’m still a janitor. How do _think_ it is?”_ _

__“There’s nothing wrong with being a janitor,” Woojin says absently. Above his head, dust motes float through the air. In the artificial light, they look like tiny stars._ _

__“Thanks,” Jaehwan replies dryly “That really means a lot. You’ve changed my entire perspective on life.”_ _

__“I mean it,” Woojin insists “Without janitors who would there be to wash floors and stuff. This place would be even more of a nightmare. The showers are bad enough when they get cleaned every day, imagine if they never got cleaned” He shudders at the thought._ _

__Jaehwan sighs mournfully “Robots could do it. I heard Gunhee from admin say that they were planning on buying a fleet of Roombas.”_ _

__“Roombas can’t clean windows so I doubt that your job will be made completely redundant.”_ _

__Jaehwan grunts in agreement and fetches his mop bucket from where he had stashed it in the corner earlier. The water in it looks dirtier than the floor, but Woojin decides not to mention it. “So,” Jaehwan says as he sloshes muddy water onto the relatively clean floor, doing more harm than good “You only ever ask me how my life’s going when there’s something you want to complain about. So what is it? Spill.”_ _

__“It’s just,” Woojin lets out a frustrated sigh and hits his fist against the metal platform beneath him “I don’t know… I feel so guilty every time Echo Ace gets deployed. They’re risking their lives again and again and that should be me out there instead of them. Or at least I should be out there as well, I should have their back.”_ _

__“There’s an easy way to solve that. Find a new co-pilot.” Jaehwan says it with a sense of finality._ _

__“I know that but I don’t _want_ to,” Woojin whines “There are reasons. I have reasons.”_ _

__Jaehwan shrugs, his shoulders coming up so high that they almost brush against his ears “You’ve been given a decision to make. Find a new co-pilot or get out of the Shatterdome. Given your current feelings, it’s pretty obvious which one you should choose.”_ _

__“But…” Woojin trails off and silence falls again and remains for a few seconds like a thick blanket “What if I’m not drift compatible with any of them? Or what if this whole thing ends with me leading someone else to their death.”_ _

__Jaehwan puts both hands on the top of his mop and leans his chin against them “What happened before wasn’t your fault and you know it. And whatever happens now probably won’t be directly your fault either. You didn’t force them to sign up, these kids know what they’re getting themselves into.”_ _

__Woojin sighs “I know, but I still blame myself and other people blame me for it too.”_ _

__“Well, the first step is to forgive yourself and move the fuck on. The sooner you get over it, the sooner they will as well.” Jaehwan pauses for a moment and frowns “Jeez, what is this? Ex-Rangers Anonymous?” He picks up the mop bucket and walks over to one of the drains set in the floor and dumps the contents into it “Give the new trainees a chance. Who knows, one of them might surprise you.”_ _

__“Thanks,” Woojin says with a weak smile “I’m not sure what I’d do without you.”_ _

__Jaehwan hums under his breath “Perish probably, or make better life choices. The jury is out on that one.”_ _

__

__The following morning comes way too soon for Jihoon’s liking. He was too hyped up to sleep for ages after the Kaiju attack and had ended up drinking and celebrating in the mess hall until the early hours of the morning. And now, with only a few hours sleep, he found himself standing at the edge of the Kwoon room with the other trainees, fighting to keep his eyes open. There’s seven of them in total. Handpicked from the top ranks of trainees at each training center. Jihoon was the only one to make it from his._ _

__The Marshall stands in front of them, looking far too smart and well presented given how early it still is. On the other hand, Jihoon is pretty certain that he looks like he’s been dragged backwards through the hedge and attacked by a feral cat._ _

__“I’m sure you all know why you’re here,” He says, his voice isn’t loud exactly, but there’s something about it that compels Jihoon to listen closely to every word. Maybe it’s just fear of messing up and getting kicked out of the program over everything else “Two of our Rangers retired recently and so we need a new drift compatible pair to take over piloting their old Jaeger. We also need a new Ranger to co-pilot one of our older Jaegers, she hasn’t seen action in a few years, but her old Ranger has graciously decided to step back into the conn-podd.”_ _

__Marshall Yoon paces up and down slowly in front of them as he speaks “Now, I’m sure that all of you here can do basic mathematics, but just in case you’re struggling, allow me to point out the basics to you. We need 3 rangers, we have 7 trainees. Four of you will not make it. You’ll be sent back to training and may never see the inside of a Jaeger again. Do you understand?”_ _

__“Yes, Sir.” The trainees bark out in the scary unison that comes from years of military drills._ _

__“Good, today we’re starting off with something simple. Siyeon?” A girl a couple of years younger than Jihoon steps out from behind the Marshall, her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail and a staff held firmly in her right hand. Jihoon recognises her from his whistle-stop tour of the base._ _

__“I’ve got it from here, Jisung.” She says, practically bouncing on the spot. Jihoon feels his eyebrows disappear into his hairline. Did no one around here care about ranks? Jisung nods once and leaves, the second the door clicks shut behind him some of the tension vanishes from the room._ _

__“Today is extremely important,” Siyeon is tiny, she barely comes up to Jihoon’s chin, but he has the feeling that she isn’t someone who’s bad side you want to get on “Fail and you’re out. We have no interest in trainees who haven’t even mastered the basics.”_ _

__“I thought this was meant to be simple.” The trainee next to Jihoon mutters under his breath and Jihoon has to fight the urge to laugh._ _

__“You!” Siyeon exclaims with a smile, tapping her staff against the trainee’s chest “You’re up first for being a smartass!” She motions the trainee into the middle of the mats on the floor and hands him a staff “All you have to do is put up a decent fight and that’s it, you get to stay. See, Simple.”_ _

__“Are you sure that I should be fighting against you?” The trainee asks “You’re kinda small, it won’t be a fair fight.”_ _

__Siyeon’s grin grows wider “You’re damn right it won’t be.” The trainee doesn’t look convinced, but he adopts a ready position, legs shoulder width apart, knees bent slightly and staff held out in front of him._ _

__“I’m so glad that that isn’t me,” The trainee on Jihoon’s other side whispers and Jihoon nods in agreement “I’m Sunghyuk.”_ _

__“Jihoon, nice to meet you.”_ _

__As they watch, Siyeon strikes like a cobra. She moves so fast that none of them realise she isn't standing still anymore until her staff connects with the trainee’s legs with a solid thunk and knocks them out from under him. Before he even has a chance to blink her staff is underneath his chin “One.”_ _

__“Your reflexes are like a grandma stuck in drying cement,” Jihoon follows the sound of the voice with his eyes. There, sitting in the corner on a stack of spare mats with his legs folded is scar boy. This time in a clean pair of overalls that are the deep navy blue of the J-techs “Speed up or you’ll never make it.” Jihoon can feel anger starting to build beneath the surface of his skin. Who the hell did this engineer think he was?_ _

__The trainee springs back onto his feet and brings his staff down in an arc towards Siyeon’s head. She rolls sideways and turns, bringing her staff up to the base of his neck “Two.”_ _

__“Your defense is wide open.” Scar boy points out helpfully._ _

__This time, the trainee actually manages to parry Siyeon’s first two blows before swinging at her so fast that she has to jump backwards to avoid it “Not bad, but you’ll have to try harder,” She shouts and then in the blink of an eye it’s over and the trainee is flat on his back with Siyeon’s foot on his chest “You pass!” She announces “Now, get up. We have another six trainees to get through and I want to be able to get to lunch on time.”_ _

__Next is a pair of girls, both even shorter than Siyeon, who fight in tandem with a scary level of synchronization. They manage to give Siyeon a run for her money with the rain of blows they shower down on her, but even then she manages to defeat them without breaking a sweat. This time scar boy stays mute. Jihoon gives Sunghyuk a questioning look._ _

__“They came from my training center,” He explains “They joined the program together and they’re already confirmed to be drift compatible which is why they fight together.” Jihoon feels his heart sink through the floor and into the sea below. What sort of chance does he stand against people like this?_ _

__Sunghyuk is up next, then another two boys whose names Jihoon doesn’t manage to catch. All get defeated in quick succession complete with a quickfire of derisive comments from scar boy. And then, last but not least it’s Jihoon. By this point, he’s a hurricane with skin and the calm exterior hides an overpowering fury. He speaks before he has time to realise that what he’s saying is potentially a very, very, _very_ bad idea._ _

__“I want to duel with him,” He says, pointing his staff at scar boy. Siyeon raises one perfect eyebrow and then shrugs._ _

__“Okay,” She turns to scar boy “Get down here and make yourself useful for once instead of just skulking at the edge of my practice room.” Scar boy exhales loudly in frustration and climbs down from the stack of mats. Siyeon offers him her staff and he takes it awkwardly. He spins it once and glares at it like it just personally insulted him. Jihoon feels a burst of confidence, he can defeat this guy easily. He wasn’t the Kwoon champion during training for nothing._ _

__“Whenever you’re ready,” Siyeon says, stepping back to stand by the trainees, most of whom are nursing new bruises all over their limbs._ _

__Jihoon lunges forward first, holding the staff in both hands like a hockey stick and brings it around towards scar boy’s ribs. Scar boy doesn’t even raise his staff, he just sidesteps and turns to the side so that Jihoon’s staff goes sailing past. Jihoon, suddenly thrown off balance, stumbles forward and scar boy hooks one foot under Jihoon’s left one and sends him thudding to the ground in an undignified heap._ _

__“One.” Scar boy says clearly, knocking his staff not all that gently against Jihoon’s head. He steps back and Jihoon scrambles to his feet. What the _hell_ just happened. How could a J-Tech move that fast?_ _

__He tries again. This time more cautious, hanging back and keeping his feet firmly planted. It’s no use. Scar boy simply spins around him and plants one foot square in the small of his back, sending him crashing face-first into the mats. He can feel bruises blooming over his ribs and every breath hurts more than it probably should. Jihoon is pretty sure that mats are meant to be softer than the concrete floor, but if anything these ones seem harder. Maybe they’re just there to make it easier to clean away the blood_ _

__The final time, Jihoon waits instead of attacking blindly first. Maybe, if he can get an idea of this guy’s style he might stand a fighting chance. Pun not intended. Scar boy moves like a dancer, gliding across the mats as he launches a complicated series of hits that Jihoon somehow finds himself able to block. He pushes back and the boy matches his every move. Suddenly, it’s like they’re following some sort of choreography. No longer a duel instead it’s something else. Something more fluid, like a river flowing over boulders instead of a landslide like it had been before. Something foreign to Jihoon and when it registers, it’s enough to make him stutter, to make him pause. Scar boy seizes the opening and suddenly the tip of his staff is resting between Jihoon’s eyes “Three,” He says “You’re dead.” And then steps back, dropping his staff to the floor “I’ve fought against children who were stronger than you.” Jihoon sees red and feels his grip on his staff tighten, unconsciously raising it. But, before he gets the chance to do something else he regrets, Siyeon steps between them. Scar boy turns and storms out before she gets a chance to open her mouth._ _

__“That was… interesting,” She says, chewing on her bottom lip “Class is over for today. All of you go get cleaned up, get an ice pack for your broken bones or whatever, and meet Rangers Kang and Ong outside Jaeger Bay 1 in an hour. I’ll see you all back here at the same time tomorrow.” She stops a few feet from the door and turns back “Trainee Park, go to the infirmary, your nose looks like it might be broken.”_ _

__Jihoon lifts his hand up to his nose. It comes back red and sticky with blood. Shit._ _

__

__

__“First day of training!” Minki exclaims “And there was me hoping that I wouldn’t have to see you in here for at least a couple of months. Most new trainees can make it that long without winding up in the infirmary. Even Seongwoo can usually make it a week without seriously injuring himself. You haven’t even been here for 24 hours” His fingers press against each side of Jihoon’s nose and Jihoon squeaks in pain “Baby.” Minki says accusingly._ _

__“Your bedside manner could really use some work,” Jonghyun says, putting down his paperwork and walking over to the bed that Jihoon is perched on the edge of._ _

__“When my patient is an idiot I can say whatever the hell I want,” Minki says, unwrapping an alcohol wipe and wiping the blood away from Jihoon’s nose._ _

__“Good news,” Jonghyun says, ignoring Minki “The X-rays show that your nose isn’t broken, just badly bruised. You must’ve ruptured a blood vessel when you hit the mats, hence all the blood. But it isn’t serious.”_ _

__“How did it happen?” Minki asks, taking off his gloves and throwing them into an orange bin “Siyeon is normally a lot more careful the first few times you duel with her. She knows that the higher ups hate it when she takes trainees out of action.”_ _

__

__“I didn’t duel with Siyeon,” Jihoon mumbles, his eyes fixed on his lap._ _

__“Sorry, I didn’t catch that,” Jonghyun says, picking his clipboard up again and signing off at the bottom of it “You’re officially discharged now, you don’t have a concussion so you should be fine, but come back if you feel dizzy or nauseous.”_ _

__“I said, I didn’t fight Siyeon.” Jihoon repeats, slightly louder this time “I don’t know what his name was. He was a J-Tech or at least he had the uniform, about my height, brown hair, scar on the left side of his face?”_ _

__Minki drops the tray of tools that he’s carrying and they fall to the floor with an unearthly clatter, scattering everywhere “Woojin? You dueled with _Woojin_? But that’s impossible, he hasn’t been in the Kwoon room since…”_ _

__

__“Since what?” Jihoon asks, leaning forwards “Why does the name sound familiar?”_ _

__Jonghyun sighs and sits down on the bed opposite Jihoon “Park Woojin, ex-ranger, lost his co-pilot going up against the first mark III kaiju? It was all over the news for months.”_ _

__

__“Oh,” Jihoon says simply. He remembers now, of course he does. It had been just as he’d entered basic training. A tragedy so horrible that no one could bear to stop talking about it in the same way that you can’t tear your eyes away from a car crash at the edge of a motorway as you speed past. Half of his class had dropped out because of it. Up until then, the Jaegers had seemed invincible, the Rangers like gods. It had been a shocking reminder of how dangerous it actually was “I didn’t know he stayed at the Shatterdome?”_ _

__“Jisung didn’t want to let him go after the accident,” Jonghyun explains as Minki carefully picks scalpels and cannula needles off the ground “He knows too much about how the program runs, he could have been a security risk. Especially given how angry he was at everyone here. So he stayed, officially his job is to advise the J-techs on whether or not their upgrades would actually be useful.”_ _

__“That doesn’t explain why he was hanging around in the Kwoon room. Or why he thought that insulting us as we dueled was a good use of his time.”_ _

__Minki stands up and tips the newly rescued contents of his tray into a yellow tub with a giant warning triangle plastered on the front “You’ll have to ask him that.”_ _

__Jihoon laughs, but it sounds hollow “I’d rather not.” He says, gesturing at his nose._ _

__“If it makes you feel any better, that was probably an accident.” Jonghyun says with a shrug “Now, don’t you have somewhere else to be?” Jihoon glances at the clock and his heart sinks into his shoes. He’s going to be late. This is becoming something of a running theme._ _

__

__

__

__“Come in,” Jisung calls, quickly shutting the page open on his laptop. It’s another report from the Council, they aren’t happy with the use of resources at the Shatterdome. Or something else ridiculously insignificant. To be honest, Jisung hasn’t quite been able to bring himself to read it. He’s hoping that if he leaves it open for long enough it’ll magically sort itself out. Partly because he knows from past experience that as soon as he’s dealt with this particular grievance they’ll find a new bone to pick. Maybe it’ll be the number of personnel required, or that the Shatterdome needs to turn out a bigger profit instead of being a swirling black hole for government funds._ _

__Siyeon pokes her head around the door “Have you got a minute? Or five?” She asks._ _

__“Of course.” Jisung nods his head towards the chair opposite his desk and Siyeon sits, a maroon paper folder clutched tightly in her hand “What is it you wanted to talk to me about?”_ _

__“I think we may have found our new pair of rangers, as well as Woojin’s new copilot. Or rather the co-pilot found him.” She slides the folder across the desk and Jisung flips it open. Scanning through each page._ _

__“That was fast,” He replies “Don’t this things usually take more time?”_ _

__Siyeon slouches back in her chair and shrugs slightly with one shoulder “Normally, yes, but this wasn’t like anything I’ve ever seen before. Not from two complete strangers. It was kinda creepy like they were already inside each other’s heads. But…”_ _

__

__Jisung closes the folder “But what?”_ _

__“They don’t exactly get on. You know how Woojin is and this new guy’s got even more of an attitude than him. I don’t know how well they’d actually work together. Sure they look like they’re drift compatible in theory, but you only fight well as a team if you have a connection. Christ knows what these two would do if we set them loose in a Jaeger together now.”_ _

__Jisung hums in thought “For now we’ll carry on with the training programme as before. It’s possible that one of the other trainees will be a suitable match. I’ll have Woojin join as a trainer. I’m sure that Daniel and Seongwoo will appreciate the extra set of hands. Who knows? Maybe Woojin and this trainee will learn to work together.”_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/prismkyla) [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/daybreakmp3)
> 
> p.s. if you can guess who the two female trainees i mentioned were i'll love you forever

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! :D
> 
> [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/IoveIines)


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